Harbottle & Jonas

At its best, modern folk music is a sublime mix of classic sounds and modern themes and this pair are definitely one of the best folk acts I’ve heard in a long while.

They have been lauded by the likes of Seth Lakeman and Martin Carthy as well as BBC Introducing. And they work hard at their craft, playing over a hundred gigs a year and writing all their material.

You can definitely hear why Seth Lakeman called them “A really unique sound” in the way that their voices melt into each other, not so much harmonising as creating a third instrument but they also hit a traditional sound with echoes of the great folkies such as Steeleye Span .

Opener ‘Northumberland’ starts with a gently picked guitar and gently brings the vocals in. Harbottle’s banjo and Jude Wright’s cello alongside Mark Nesbitt’s violin create a lonely landscape but the tone is one of wishing rather than sorrow for a lost home.
When it goes straight into the sublimely jaunty ‘My Boy Jack’ you almost find yourself dancing around the room – take your significant other in arms and dance the reel!

All through they are hitting high spots and changing moods but none better than a magnificent ‘Gaudete!’. Freya Jenas playing the concertina simply and with great heart but those voices ….

At first listen, the title track almost sounds as though it sits in the roots/Americana genre but when the chorus comes in it really is a classic folk number with complex lyrical form and a delicious violin (NOT a fiddle) ebbing and throwing a spinning shape into the background.

A very fine pair of musicians and it is very special to think that we are still making music of this quality in a world of pre-programmed pap.